Week beginning 19th April 2026
Some weeks are all go. Some weeks have a bit of rhythm. And some weeks somehow manage to include chimney repairs, Derbyshire views, a dental emergency caused by toffees, the return of a much-missed machine, and getting told off in Tesco while disguised in leopard print.
This was one of those weeks.
After a fair bit of running around the country recently, fixing roofs, looking at machines, filming content and generally wearing out both boots and diesel the week beginning 19th April began in the best possible way: slowly.
Sunday was a much-needed recharge. Family time, a relaxed afternoon, a Sunday dinner with the in-laws, and watching Robin chase a bag of air around a grassy field with all the enthusiasm of a Wembley finalist and roughly the same tactical awareness. A proper reset before another week of rooftops.
Monday – Verges, Bird Guards and a Toffee-Related Crisis
Monday started with a change of plans when work with a roofer was postponed, which opened the door to return to Ravenshead and tackle some verge repointing for a customer I’d been helping the previous week.
It turned into one of those satisfying little jobs that sits nicely under roof repair work, repointing tired verge ends and fitting bird guards to open chimney pots to stop crows taking up residence where they definitely shouldn’t.
Then the day took a turn.
After an ill-advised bag of very hard Marks & Spencer toffees had apparently declared war on one of my teeth, I spent the afternoon racing from rooftop to dentist chair. There are few pains in life quite as motivating as toothache.
Thankfully the dentist squeezed me in, and I even made it back in time for one of my favourite jobs of all, school pickup.
Not bad for a Monday.
Tuesday – Big Chimneys in Mapperley Park and Cubs by Night
Tuesday was a proper graft day.
With my good mate Tomek helping, we tackled a tall chimney in Mapperley Park for major chimney maintenance, replacing failed flaunching and fitting eight new chimney cowls.
It was one of those jobs where I was constantly working the stack while Tomek kept the mortar coming. Teamwork at its finest.
Parking on Embers Grove is never straightforward, but we got the access sorted and completed the work before heading to New Basford for a quick cowl installation to help stop a leak.
Two chimney jobs, two locations, one long day.
Then it was straight from harness to scout hut for Cubs night, where the topic was seasonal growing and harvesting, a shift from mortar mixes to nature cycles.
That’s Tuesday for you.
Roofing Insight: Why Chimney Flaunching Fails
A lot of leaks begin at the very top of a chimney.
Flaunching – the mortar bedding around chimney pots sheds water away from the stack. Once it cracks or deteriorates, water can track into the chimney structure, causing damp, frost damage and internal staining.
It’s one of those things homeowners often never see, but it causes plenty of trouble.
Preventative chimney maintenance often costs far less than repairing long-term water ingress.
Wednesday – Lime Mortar and Long Miles
Wednesday meant an early run into Swadlincote, Derbyshire, an hour and ten minutes each way, for an old chimney in very poor condition.
This was proper traditional repair work.
We ground out defective joints, repointed the stack using lime mortar, and renewed the flaunching.
No shortcuts.
Just honest graft.
Older stacks often need sympathetic repairs, and this kind of specialist roof repair work is where doing things properly matters.
By the time we’d travelled, worked all day and travelled home again, it had been a full shift in every sense.
But the chimney was sound again.
Job done.
Thursday – Newark… and the Cherry Picker Comes Home
Thursday started with another chimney repointing and reflaunching job in Newark.
Solid day.
Then came the phone call.
Promax rang to say my spider lift was finally ready after repair.
That changed everything.
I headed back to base, emptied truck and trailer, and went to collect the machine.
I won’t pretend I wasn’t ridiculously pleased.
After a stretch working around its absence, getting the machine back felt like getting a missing limb returned.
For anyone wondering why I’m always talking about accessing roofs safely using a cherry picker, this is why — the machine is central to how I work.
Huge thanks to Promax.
The cherry picker was home.
And it was going straight back to work the next day.
Friday – Derbyshire Views, Drone Surveys and Two Trips to Matlock
Friday may have been my favourite day of the week.
Off to Matlock in the Derbyshire Dales for chimney repointing, and what a setting.
Perched on a hillside, sunshine out, views for miles, working again on the machine I’d only just got back…
Hard to complain.
I left early to beat school traffic and parking chaos and was packed away by about one o’clock, leaving time for a roof survey in Clipstone using the drone to investigate damp issues around a chimney.
Then back to DJI HQ for a long-overdue truck tidy.
When things get busy, the truck starts resembling a travelling builders’ merchant.
A quick run to MKM somehow turned into 20 bags of sharp sand, 10 bags of cement and a full restock.
Standard.
And just when I thought Matlock was done for the day…
I ended up driving back there again later to collect my eldest daughter.
Two trips to Matlock in one day.
You couldn’t make it up.
Saturday – Off Duty (Sort Of)
No booked work.
Which somehow still meant being up at five.
Walk.
Gym.
Breakfast lovingly cooked by Robin.
Tennis in Newark.
Me wandering round the courts with Wren while Hannah casually ran 13K despite, as I pointed out, owning a perfectly good van.
I even sat down in the middle of the day.
A rare event.
Then came the weekly Tesco shop, where I was, entirely unfairly in my opinion, reprimanded by security while playing hide and seek in the clothing section wearing a leopard print coat and women’s sunglasses.
Apparently that “looked suspicious”.
Who knew.
(There may be a future Olympic discipline in stealth supermarket operations.)
Back home I swapped winter gear for summer workwear, officially shorts weather and I have to say my gear from Granite Workwear has been earning its keep lately:
https://www.graniteworkwear.com/?afid=danny
Then it was strawberry plants from the garden centre, homemade pizza with Robin, and settling in to watch Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1.
A decent end to a very full week.
Reflections From the Week
This week had a bit of everything:
- Traditional chimney repairs
- High-access work
- Drone surveys
- The return of the cherry picker
- Derbyshire scenery
- Scout huts
- Tesco espionage
And that’s probably a fairly accurate summary of life as Dan the Cherry Picker Man.
One minute you’re rebuilding chimney tops.
The next you’re hiding behind knitwear.
I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Locations Worked This Week
- Ravenshead – verge repairs and chimney bird guards
- Mapperley Park, Nottingham – flaunching renewal and chimney cowls
- New Basford – chimney cowl installation
- Swadlincote – lime mortar chimney repointing
- Newark – chimney repairs
- Matlock – chimney repointing in the Derbyshire Dales
- Clipstone – drone roof survey
About the Author
About the Author
This blog is compiled and published by Danny Iwanejko, also known as Dan the Cherry Picker Man, of DJI High Access Services Ltd.
Drawing on real weekly field notes, the Roof Tops and Pit Stops series documents practical roofing and chimney repair work, high-access projects using spider cherry pickers, and life behind the scenes in the trade. It combines real-world experience, educational insight and day-to-day stories from rooftops across Nottinghamshire and beyond.
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